Balthazar's End
In Bathazar's catacombs, two daggers flew from Aife's hands towards Arlo, one grazing his arm and the other missing, bouncing from the stone wall behind him. Aife, Tamil and Zyr prepare defensive poses whilst their eyes glow a deep red. Ansem detected a magical aura which emanated from the large glowing red gem which hangs from the centre of the room to his possessed compatriots. The fight between the two parties ensued, Arlo was insisting on knocking out his old troupe and compatriots however whilst Tamil was fighting against Salazar, Tamil fell and was beheaded by the victorious Salazar sending the party into a frenzy against each other. Infighting between members of the party continued until the gem was destroyed by Arlo and Erebos. Aife with her mind cleared screamed for everyone to stop. Telling them that enough blood has been spilt and that the chaos is exactly what Balthazar wanted. Balthazar's voice ringed out, laughing telling them that this should have been a test during the Suffering Game, the amount of suffering which has been caused is truly tremendous. The party stopped their fighting and rested shortly before heading against Balthazar, entering to a copy of the great amphitheatre of Oxenburt, melodic music echos around its walls. From a golden sarcophagus Balthazar rises to a crescendo. Instead of wearing his red carnival ring master outfit, he is now dressed in a black and red robe with a golden trim, a black and red half smile mask which shows his rotting jaw. Behind him a large obsidian arcane gate stands vacant and unused, before Balthazar balled of red energy in his hand and cast it towards the centre of the gate and it flickered into life. "Someone's pissed, and wants his revenge." Balthazar laughed and cast a ray of frost towards the party. The final battle had begun the two parties charged towards Balthazar, the arcane gate rippled with energy as a creature attempted to breach into the material plane. As Balthazar was subdued by most of the party, Erebos and Salazar worked on demolishing the arcane gate. The creature attempting to come through was dragged into the the material plane by Salazar and then pushed back into the Abyssal where Salazar and the creature which breached the material plane back at the Doctors Tower fought an epic fight. Salazar was then impaled by the demon's spear and thrown through the gate back into the material plane as Erebos delivered the final blow on the gate. Balthazar was dead, and the demon was unable to ravage the material plane. After investigating the tomb, they destroyed all of Balthazar's phylacteries and divided the loot. Aife and Zyr recovered the bodies of Tamil and Corvax and left to return to Riverford and the 5 Stars Inn. The rest of the party headed back to the Lady's Rest and slept to recover their strength. Aife and Zyr told Arlo that they're leaving to head south to return Tamil to his family for burial. Zyr left Arlo Corvax's eagle and a heraldry ring belonging to Tamil to Ansem as a token of their friendship. The party travelled to Pilferreach. When arriving they interrupted a criminal investigation of a murder in the lodgings of the drinking hall which sold dragon's breath ale. Ansem and Drogon persuaded the investigating captain for them to aid in getting clues to the murderer. The captain lead them to a room where the body of a charred halfling and his bodyguards lay strewn across the room. Ansem discovered that this was the body of one of the 5 leaders of the assassins guild "The Burned Company" which Drogon were currently hunting, an elven woman was the attacker and not related to the guild itself. The next target "Blessed" is to be found in Perinoss.